Teaching

Syllabi available upon request

​

POL 312: Canadian Foreign Policy

​

This course will examine the key actors and institutions involved in foreign policymaking in Canada, in both historical and contemporary contexts, and will introduce students to the basics of foreign policy analysis. We will discuss how Canada’s foreign policy shapes and is shaped by the world through the lenses of trade, security, and development, as well as Canada’s involvement in regional and multilateral institutions. The course will be divided into four sections. The first will set the historical and ideational context. The second will analyze the actors and institutions through which foreign policy is mediated in Canada. The third will apply insights from the first two sections to contemporary issues in Canadian foreign policy, including the Indo-Pacific Strategy, Arctic sovereignty, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The final section will review Canada’s evolving relationship with the United States and the prospects for the future. 

​

POL 361: Global Political Economy I: History and Theory

​

Politics and economics are inextricably intertwined. This course will explore how contemporary global politics is and has been shaped by economic exchange, and the relationship between political cooperation and discord and economic prosperity. We will discuss contemporary political and economic problems through a variety of theoretical and historical lenses, including issues of trade, finance, supply chain management, colonialism, gender, and technological advancement. In doing so, we will begin to understand the historical and contemporary roles of states, international organizations, and multinational corporations in shaping the global distribution of scarce resources. 

POL 380: The Politics of Global Finance

​

This course introduces students to the political economy of global finance. It will cover a wide range of empirical and theoretical material, including discussions of financial and economic integration, regulatory standard setting, formal and informal institutions and cooperation, crisis management, the nexus of finance and security issues, development and colonialism, gender, and the increasingly salient role of technology in political life. By the end of the semester students will have a basic understanding of how financial markets are governed, how financial crises occur and are managed, and the myriad ways in which finance exerts influence on contemporary global politics.

​

POL 466: Theories of International Organization

​

Over the past two centuries, we have seen an exponential proliferation of international organizations (IOs) which serve to moderate, mediate, facilitate, orchestrate, or effectuate the behaviour of sovereign states. These organizations may vary in terms of membership, scope, formality, and, especially, effectiveness. This course will explore the historical context in which international organization as an idea and practice has emerged, why different IOs take on different forms, how the role of IOs has evolved over time, how IOs exercise power, in whose benefit, and with what authority, and the myriad ways in which international relations scholarship has approached IOs as an object of study. 

​​